First team: Grayson Allen, Duke

Allen seemed to think playing the villain was helpful for the Blue Devils a year ago, but with the team’s surplus of talent now he must concentrate simply on running the offense, scoring points and defending his man. Allen was an across-the-board star as a sophomore, making long-range shots at better than a 40 percent clip, earning more than 250 free throws and even contributing 3.5 assists per game. He has a chance to become the sixth Duke player to earn SN’s Player of the Year award since 1990.

First team: Josh Hart, Villanova

He’s been the best player on an NCAA championship team, but Josh Hart hasn’t yet been a great college basketball player. That’s the next step. That’s what he can accomplish with another year at Villanova. He averaged 15.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in his first season getting starter’s minutes, which suggests there is so much possible for him as he takes the confidence gained from last season’s title run into his senior season.

First team: Dillon Brooks, Oregon

He might be the most anonymous great player in recent college basketball history. His games on the Pac-12 Networks are not as widely distributed. His games on ESPN and Fox come mostly late at night. His great chance at a spotlight-style game dissolved under a barrage of Buddy Hield 3-pointers. But Brooks is as versatile as they come — point guard skills and power forward toughness in a small forward’s body. People will catch on soon.

First team: Melo Trimble, Maryland

Trimble was not quite as effective as a point guard running a team deep with scorers last season as when he was the focus of the show as a freshman. Well, guess what? It’s all him again. He has some nice talent around him, but Trimble will have to score big and play great in order for the Terps to succeed in 2017. Just the way he likes it.

First team: Miles Bridges, Michigan State

It’s not often a freshman walks into the MSU program, shakes Tom Izzo’s hands and takes over the team. But the guys who might have gotten in his way are gone — some on schedule, Deyonta Davis too soon — and the Spartans will need Bridges to be great. Bridges is a powerful lefty who will shoot, drive and rebound. And you know how much Izzo loves rebounders. He is the centerpiece of the deepest recruiting class the coach has signed.

Second team

Josh Jackson, Kansas

It’s hard to pick the single most promising player from a freshman class as promising as the one that arrives this season, but Jackson has the advantage of joining a veteran team in need of a game-changing player — and of being a transcendent talent. Jackson is a phenomenal athlete with the potential to be an elite defender, and if he establishes himself as a jumpshooter could be the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft.

SU fans are convinced Lydon is the heir to Coleman, Douglas, Anthony and all the other great Orange players after he contributed to their surprising 2016 Final Four run with a double-figure scoring average and all the qualities of the modern stretch four. He will be a wing player in the NBA, but the Orange have needed his willingness to battle on the boards and his long-range shooting to pull defenses out of the lane. Stardom is a big step, though.

De’Aaron Fox, Kentucky

Here’s what you need to know about Fox: In addition to being an absurdly gifted athlete, creative passer and promising deep shooter, he once dove on the floor for a loose ball with a minute left of a summer tournament game his team was winning by 14 points. That’s how committed he is to playing basketball the way it ought to be played. Kentucky has a wealth of gifted young players, but the guy running the team will make the difference.

Monte Morris, Iowa State

The challenge for Morris, after a career spent directing a team filled with productive teammates, is to step more toward the front of the pack. There is no Georges Niang to lead the scoring now. Morris gets back shooter Naz Long after an injury absence, and Deonte Burton remains a matchup nightmare, but Morris is now officially the Cyclones’ best player. What he does with that will be fascinating to see.

Ivan Rabb, California

Rabb showed exorbitant improvement as a frontcourt player over the course of his freshman season. And then he showed something more impressive: the hunger to be great. If he’d gone to the NBA after averaging 12.5 points and 8.6 rebounds, he’d have done fine. But he didn’t yet have a pro-ready game, or pro-ready body. It’d be wrong to say he needed a year of maturity, though. An immature player wouldn’t admit he could do more to be prepared.

Third team

Justin Jackson, North Carolina

The truth? Jackson should be on our first team. He has that much ability. He has that much opportunity, with Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige no longer around. But Jackson has played three seasons without ever showing a level of comfort in being The Man. He shows great willingness to be that guy when there’s no other choice, so maybe that’s what happens now. Because there might be no other choice if he wants the Tar Heels to excel.

OG Anunoby, Indiana

There is no question Anunoby is a significant talent. There is no question he will become a useful professional basketball player. There is little doubt he will make Indiana a national contender this season because of his defensive ability and his offensive potential. The one obstacle to him ending 2017 as one of college basketball’s best might be whether he’s Indiana’s best. Center Thomas Bryant is outstanding, too. Who becomes the focal point of the Hoosiers?

Nigel Williams-Goss, Washington

Mark Few coached Dan Dickau, Kevin Pangos, Matt Santangelo and Blake Stepp – and yet Williams-Goss enters with the potential to become the program’s second-greatest point guard. (John Stockton, people). At Washington before transferring, Williams-Goss averaged 15.6 points and 5.9 assists, and he’ll have better options around him now. Let’s hope NWG was working on his jumper while sitting out: only 26 percent on threes as a UW sophomore.

Harry Giles, Duke

This may be hard for some longtime fans to digest, but Giles was born seven years after Christian Laettner hit a 17-foot jumper against Kentucky to end the Greatest Game Ever Played. But Giles might be the closest thing to Laettner to hit college since: a combination of interior moxie and perimeter skill in a player who measures close to 7 feet. Giles has two concerns: finishing better at the rim, and finishing the season on two healthy legs. The later is the only thing that hold him off this list.

He made the all-ACC first team, was named most improved player and scored just short of 19 a game. At 6-7, 220, he shot better than 44 percent on 3-pointers. He’s done just about everything a player could do except what every college player wants to do, which is appear in the NCAA Tournament. If he gets Clemson back there for the first time since 2011, Blossomgame might just make the All-American first team this time.

Next Up:2016-17 preseason top 25: College basketball looks awfully strong at the top